GEORGE TOWN, Aug 9 — Penang Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Chow Kon Yeow said the PH-Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition will “let go” of seats in the state that it knows it cannot win in this state election.

He said those seats that the coalition will not focus much on those seats that it knows will be hard for the unity coalition to win.

“We don’t want to waste our resources on those seats; instead, we will bring the resources to seats that we are able to win,” he said during a ceramah kelompok at Lip Sin Garden here tonight.

He said the unity coalition’s target is to win 30 out of the 40 state seats in Penang.

“Back in 2018, due to a tsunami, we won 37 out of 40 seats. But this time around, we don’t want to aim for the same number as the tsunami,” he said.

He said the unity coalition does not want to be overly confident and believes it could still retain 30 seats.

“There’s also talk of a green wave, so we have to take that into account by targeting 30 seats,” he said.

He also called on voters not to be complacent but to come out to vote.

He said a low voter turnout may affect the winning chances of the PH-BN unity coalition.

“We need all registered voters to come out to vote. We need at least 75 per cent voters’ turnout to win,” he said.

Later, when asked to clarify his earlier announcement about the plan to let go of some seats, the caretaker Penang chief minister said it is an election strategy to focus only on winnable seats.

“Why chase after seats that you cannot win?” he asked.

He said the unity coalition’s political opponents also focused more on their winnable seats.

“You don’t see them campaigning in our strong seats,” he said.

Chow, however, declined to specify which of the 10 seats are considered not winnable by the unity government.

It is believed that, based on the results of the 15th general election, Perikatan Nasional is likely to sweep state seats in the Malay heartland of Penang such as under those under the Tasek Gelugor, Kepala Batas, Permatang Pauh and Nibong Tebal parliamentary constituencies.

There are a total of 15 Malay-majority state seats in Penang: four on the island and 11 on the mainland. - malaymail